But there was no animal inside its jaws. Instead, there was only a solitary paw. Whatever had been captured had chewed off its own limb in order to es...cape. At the time Maude had been sickened, but now another thought occurred to her. The animal had been lucky. At least it had been given an option.Maude looked down at her mangled right hand, knowing that if she had been able to escape Voldemort by its amputation, she would lop it off in a trice. She stifled an insane gasp of laughter at the. " Ava got out of bed, then asked, "Are we playing a game, or can I wear a robe?" A robe's fine. Grab Mark's." Okay, thanks."As soon as Ava was out of the room, I started snoring. If half a snore can be called "snoring" because Julia jabbed me in the ribs, chucking and demanding, "Spill it!"I pointed out, "Don't you think you're misusing Ava's obedience just because you're nosey?" I do not. There is no higher purpose than satisfying my curiosity. You can start doing that right now." It's simple;. I shrugged my shoulders. “We did talk about it a few times but mum’s career took off and then my business got going and I suppose the timing was never right.”“Do you want children, dad?”“Bit late now I suppose.”“You can still father them,” Amy responded.I looked her. “Hey, don’t get any ideas,” I told her. “You have got your education to finish and a career to get established first!”She laughed. “Don’t panic dad, I wasn’t thinking of right now.”I felt easier.“But in the future... well, who. I'd obviously misjudged her reasons for wanting to go to the dance. She didn't want everyone to know we were a couple - well, maybe a little. What she really wanted was for me to discover and appreciate how talented she was as a dancer.She'd succeeded. I was impressed.The song ended, and she hugged Tom Bellini, her partner for the dance. She turned and searched for me, found me, and seconds later, she landed in my lap, and gave me a quick kiss."I'm dancing with Tanya's date next. Ask her to.